commerzbank ag (CBK) Details

Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft provides banking and other financial services to private and corporate clients, and institutional investors worldwide. The company operates in five segments: Private Customers, Mittelstandsbank, Central & Eastern Europe, Corporates & Markets, and Non-Core Assets. It offers deposit, loan, security, payments traffic, and pension products; wealth management services, such as securities and portfolio management, credit management, and loans and real estate management services; advice on trust and inheritance issues, and corporate investments; Internet-based advisory and services; open-ended real estate funds; closed-end funds for real estate, aircraft, ships, and renewable energy; and institutional investments and structured investments, as well as equipment leasing services. The company also provides payments and cash management solutions, flexible financing solutions, interest rate and currency management products, professional investment advisory services, and investment banking solutions. In addition, it is engaged in the trade and sale of equity and commodity-related financial products, as well as interest rate, credit, and currency instruments. Further, the company offers arrangement and advisory services for equity, debt, and hybrid instruments; and mergers and acquisitions, as well as provides securitization solutions and ship financing services. As of February 3, 2015, it operated approximately 1,200 branches. The company was founded in 1870 and is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Commerzbank to pay $1.45 billion to settle criminal charges it hid transactions with Iran and Sudan and conspired with camera-maker Olympus on a massive accounting fraud. The bank admitted and accepted responsibility for illegal conduct under US sanctions and bank secrecy laws. Prosecutors described the Commerzbank routinely flouting of US sanctions ont he two countries and decried shoddy oversight that fell far short of standards for detecting and reporting suspicious activity. Prosecutors said Commerzbank from 2002 through 2008 systematically processed transactions with Iranian and Sudanese entities in violation of US sanctions. Bank staff ignored warnings that the transactions were problematic and did not heed advice from auditors to alert US staff. The bank admitted in the federal deferred prosecution agreement to 'knowingly and wilfully' moving $263 million through the US financial system on behalf of the two countries. Commerzbank stripped out information identifying sanctioned parties, even designating a special team of employees to manually process Iranian identifying information that might trigger red flags that would delay or block transactions. The bank also made loans and handled transfers for Olympus, helping the company to hide hundreds of millions of dollars worth of losses in violation of the US Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering rules. Commerzbank loaned money to off-balance-sheet entities created by Olympus to disguise losses. It also transacted more than $1.6 billion through its New York division to further the fraud. Under a deferred prosecution agreement, the Justice Department will seek dismissal of the criminal case after three years if Commerzbank meets requirements on reporting offenses and improving internal program. The bank agreed to install an independent monitor and terminate five New York employees to settle charges with Lawsky's office.

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